Are You Ever Coming Home?...No! I am playing with Wizards,Farkles & Sparkling Friends

[jenseib]

Patty’s table was right next to ours, so we could wave if we wanted. LOL. It wasn’t easy to talk to them though.

 

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Ferdi came over….yay! Glad we got him. And I told him how we had him in Oct. and he pretended to remember me and mentioned how I always sail with big groups. LOL. I am sure he did not remember me, but that was ok. Our assistant server was Lewis. He was very nice, but a little slow with things. Jeanne later speculated that he had been put to work with Ferdi because Ferdi was good enough to make up for some of Lewis’s shortcomings…and often Ferdi was doing some of Lewis’s jobs. The only big complaint from me about him was that he wasn’t always fast with refilling drinks for us, but often at other tables he was on it. Jeanne also asked for coke zero, which they always will go and get for her from the bar on other ships and he said they didn’t have it. Well Jeanne knows the head beverage guy and a few nights later she was rolling in coke zero. LOL!!!!!

 

We made our orders and chatted. Tonight we had a special welcome aboard menu which had some nice items on it. I will admit that I slacked at dinner pictures and didn’t always take them of everything.

 

Proscuitto, Mozerella, and Tomato Bruschetta

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Clam chowder

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I think Claire got the clam chowder too. I didn’t take pictures of her food too often. In Oct. she went with 2 steaks and fries every night. This time around she went with one steak and fries.

 

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Penne Arrabiatta (sp?)

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Jeanne’s girls talked to Kira and Claire a bit. (I don’t think I ever heard Nick even talk that night. LOL). I could tell that Claire was enamored with them. I could totally understand….both in their early 20’s, beautiful and super friendly. They were so nice to the girls. Most young ladies that age would not want to be bothered with a 10 and 12 year old.

[jenseib]

After we ate our main courses, Claire and Kira were going to head off to have some fun together. Rob had to run to the room for something and came back with this picture.

 

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BUSTED!!! They went for ice-cream! Which was perfectly fine. They could have been doing worse.

 

Time for our dessert.

 

The Magical Express Sundae….though it called for mint ice-cream and I got vanilla.

 

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Dark Chocolate Bombe

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Claire messaged me that her flip flop broke. UGH! These were brand new sparkly ones that we bought just for the cruise. Oh well….nothing we can do about it now.

 

The food was OK. Some things better than others. My pasta dish was probably my least favorite of the meal. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t fabulous either. But at least I wasn’t cooking!

 

We wanted to see the adult show of Six Appeal tonight in the tube, so after dinner many of us met up there. The seating here is just awful!!!!! The bari s right in the way to see and the tables in the back are high stools which I have issues balancing on…and found out all of us had issues. And then people stand all around to try and see, so it makes it almost impossible to enjoy unless you are close.

 

We arrived a little early and of course only the bar stools are open…so we grabbed a couple tables and some chairs and balanced.

 

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I found an entrance to Skyline here. I had no clue there was one in here before.

 

It ended up being Jeanne and her girls, Brook and Joe,Cass and Rob, Fred and Patty and me.

 

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It was next to impossible to see and there were some TV screens in the back so we mainly watched the show on those.

 

 

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[jenseib]

Video….remember that all that music is from just their MOUTHS! Lots of background noise though too.

 

 

Check them out on Youtube to find better videos and sound.

 

The chairs were so awful!!! I had my feet braced on other stools….Jeanne had hers on mine…and basically everyone was entangled to stay upright. If one of us moved it could set off a domino effect! LOL.

 

Rob and Cass.

 

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Patty and Fred

 

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I guess I missed Brook and Joe.

 

The show was a lot of fun and they were really good. Such amazing talent!

 

When the show was over dancing started and Emily and Kelsey went out to dance. Jeanne and I stuck around a bit, but then we decided to call it a night.

 

I took a walk back to the front of the ship via deck 4.

 

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And made it back to the room and saw our towel animal for the night.

 

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We also had an invite to the Gold and Platinum member event for tomorrow. We had heard about this from the previous cruise (11nighter). It sounded really cool. They were going to show us a segment of Aladdin and then show it again explaining tech stuff. We were planning to go to it. The bad thingis we had our princess meet right before that and could possibly be late. We had talked about it before the cruise when we heard about it and decided we would skip the Princess meet.

 

Our room host had set up the couch bed for Claire...even though we had set a lot of stuff on the couch earlier assuming he would pull down the murphy bed. She slept on it tonight and we let him know later that she would prefer the pull down for the rest of the cruise.

 

We got ready for bed and Claire was all giggles and laughs and talked nonstop about their night and all they did. She seemed to be having a good time, which made me happy. Finally I told her it was time to settle down as we had a character breakfast tomorrow to go to. We could nap later if she needed to.

[CarrieAP]

The Fantasy is a great ship! Have you sailed Disney before? If so, which ships? I have been on 3 of them, with the Wonder still eluding me. Hopefully in the next few years I can get myself on her too.

 

Just took my first Disney cruise this year on the Dream with my little sister (special needs). She's a huge Disney nut and I love cruises so this had been on our bucket list for some time. Took a 4-night for a test run and she loved it, so booked a 7-night on the Fantasy for next year. We both loved the adult areas which provided the best of both worlds- all the Disney fun and magic, with a peaceful oasis to escape the kiddos for quiet time.

 

So jealous of your extended cruise because that sounds like the ultimate Fantasy for me! Little sis is a bit burned out on the Disney parks so we stayed at Universal pre-cruise so she could get her ride fix. Our first time and because it's smaller and easier to navigate worked out well for my first time alone with her. We bought annual passes so will return for a few nights pre-cruise in April but as I said your pictures of Pandora have me thinking the Disney parks will be on our itinerary after that.

[jenseib]

Just took my first Disney cruise this year on the Dream with my little sister (special needs). She's a huge Disney nut and I love cruises so this had been on our bucket list for some time. Took a 4-night for a test run and she loved it, so booked a 7-night on the Fantasy for next year. We both loved the adult areas which provided the best of both worlds- all the Disney fun and magic, with a peaceful oasis to escape the kiddos for quiet time.

 

So jealous of your extended cruise because that sounds like the ultimate Fantasy for me! Little sis is a bit burned out on the Disney parks so we stayed at Universal pre-cruise so she could get her ride fix. Our first time and because it's smaller and easier to navigate worked out well for my first time alone with her. We bought annual passes so will return for a few nights pre-cruise in April but as I said your pictures of Pandora have me thinking the Disney parks will be on our itinerary after that.

 

 

My first Disney cruise was on the Dream too. It's a great ship, but I haven't been on that one now since 2012 I think. I haven't seen the new things added a few years ago.

 

The Fantasy is very similar, so you will love it.

I love Universal! I was there in Feb. I actually tried to get my husband to come down at the end of this trip and do a few days at Universal but he was just too busy...and he's stubborn too. If it isn't his idea, then he doesn't agree to it.

 

Pandora is really neat...but super crowded right now. I hope they add more rides to the area eventually.

[jenseib]

Day 5, June 29,2017, Day at Sea

 

We had a little rocking last night, but it wasn’t too bad….however we had a creaky room. At times very creaky. It had that sound you hear in the movies with a ship sinking…..yeah not so comforting. It seemed to be coming from where the wall met the ceiling in on particular area over the desk and mirror. I actually could see a gap there with wood pieces pushed in…which led me to believe that they knew of the problem and tried to fix it….sort of. This wasn’t going to ruin my trip in any way, but for some this might be a problem.

 

I got up and threw on shorts and a shirt and went down to deck 4 to walk. I was going to try and make myself walk several laps on most days if I could. I knew some port days it might not work out, but if we were at sea…I needed to be walking off the desserts. I walked a few laps, but it was HOT! One side had the sun shining hard and the other side it was shaded. If it had been like the shaded side the whole way around I would have done more laps. I kept my eye open for Jeanne as she said she was going to walk each morning too….but I never saw her. I later found out she was out there at the same time, so she was probably half a lap in front of me and that is why I never saw her.

 

I headed back to the room to get ready for breakfast. I was sweaty but didn’t want to wash my hair, so I just did one of those half showers…washing up, but not getting my hair wet.

 

I got Claire up and it was like the devil had possessed my sweet girl overnight. First thing she said to me was “I am NOT hanging out with ANYONE today!” Hunh? What? Why? She went on how she just didn’t want to hang with anyone but me, and she only wanted to do things with me. OH Boy! Remember a few days ago when I was super lame? What happened?

I said OK, we will talk it over later, but right now we have to go the character breakfast. Well she needed a shower but didn’t want to take one. I suggested the half shower and that was shot down. Her hair was greasy….did I bring dry shampoo….Um no…sorry... I didn’t think of that. I am pretty sure her head spun around and her eyes turned red as she complained about EVERYTHING…..Ok, I am exaggerating. Her head didn’t actually spin….but her eyes were red….bloodshot from lack of sleep.

 

Jeanne’s family was also supposed to go to this breakfast, but they were moving slow and messaged that they wouldn’t make it. Claire thought we should just skip it now. I said no, this we are doing and I won’t make her do them in the future. Is Cass and Kira coming? Hmmm….I think Cass canceled their reservation. UGH! She was not happy. Where had this spawn of Satin come from?

 

Finally we were dressed and ready to go and when we arrived we asked to have a table to ourselves.

 

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Look how happy she is to be here.

 

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I told her we would eat and just do the characters that came by in that time…that made her a little more happier. She did get slightly nicer as the meal went on.

 

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[jenseib]

I told her we would take turn with characters again….but of course they kept going right over to her.

 

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The donut man was slow today…but finally he did come by and bring me what I wanted.

 

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We were about done, but Goofy was just a few tables away. I said I wanted to wait for him and I would get my picture with him.

 

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He insisted Claire get one too. Hahaha

 

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And Mickey was just a few tables away and I said….well he is the Captain of this ship….we should probably wait for him too.

 

 

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[jenseib]

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We left with her in a bit of a better mood now. She went back to the room to laze around and I headed off on my own for a bit.

 

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I got to talking to a lady up on the Meridian outside deck. She was on the last cruise as well and she was teaching the ballroom dancing classes. There were 4 of them total teaching and they do a couple special cruises a year and also have adance studio in LA. She had an accent though, so I think she is from somewhere in Europe. I noticed later that her and her partners (1other lady and 2 men) were always a few tables away from us at dinner. She was super nice.

 

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I went back to the room and got Claire and we went and browsed the shops. There were a lot of things that caught our eye, but I was really good and I barely bought anything this whole cruise for myself. I don’t think we ever actually bought anything in any of the gift shops.

 

The Gold and Platinum event would start soon and it was going to have a little cocktail hour out near the shops before heading into the Walt Disney Theatre. We made our way over closer to the theatre doors and waited for Jeanne. She said her and Emily were on their way down. I knew Cass was coming too.

 

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They were serving drinks. Claire and I each had one…with Claire having sparkling cider.

 

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[jenseib]

Several Crew Members came up and talked to us. I believe Mike, the cruise director was one and he was super nice. Also Deano, who is the night club host type guy (not sure of his official title, but he is ALL over the ship running things all day long) came up and talked to us for a while. I heard Deano was newer and I really liked him…again he was super friendly. He was from Ireland, but lives in the US now as he is married. He didn’t have much of an Irish accent and he said it comes every so often, but for the most part it has faded away…which he says makes his wife mad. She said she married him for her accent. LOL.

 

After a bit Jeanne and Emily arrived. I think Cass came a bit after that and we all headed into the theatre then to watch the show.

 

Mike came out first and talked.

 

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Then Captain Fabian….who I really like. I think he is the friendliest Captain I have cruised with. (we had him in Oct as well).

 

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And then they started a segment of Aladdin.

 

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After they played it, they reset the scene and introduced a lot of the behind the scenes people. They explained what is going on backstage and in the control room the whole while this segment is playing. They then reran it again, only with the control room audio on for us to hear. They talked the WHOLE entire segment. Wow! Most really didn’t make sense to us (though they did try to explain some of it before they reran it), but it was just amazing all that is going on while we are watching the show.

 

After that they talked some more and gave out an award for the person who had sailed the most. One of our friends won and her prize was a water bottle with last cruises melted ice sculpture….aka….just a water bottle. Hahahaha.

 

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After the show it was time for lunch and Jeanne went with Claire and I to Cabana’s.

 

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I didn’t get my main plate, but I did take a picture of the dessert.

 

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For some reason Disney tops a lot of their desserts with this layer of gel. I find it gross and Jeanne mentioned she didn’t like it either. We both often would scrape that layer off before eating our desserts.

[jenseib]

We sat and talked a long time at our table. Claire LOVES to listen to adults talk. I guess she is an old soul at times. I think one of the reasons she doesn’t want to do the kids clubs is because she is afraid she will miss something. She has always loved to be with me when I talk with adult friends. She is nosey! Last cruise she did hang with her cousin Alexis a lot…but many times they were also hanging with my sister or my Aunt…so again….they were with adults.

 

After lunch we decided to take an official look inside Sweet on You.

 

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These treats and ice-creams are an additional cost and not included in your cruise fare.

 

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[jenseib]

After our tour of Sweet on You we headed out on deck. During the dry dock they took the family hot tub out and replaced it with this splash area….which is super lame.

 

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This was the busiest I ever saw it the whole cruise.

 

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We separated from Jeanne and went back to the room for a little rest.

 

We wanted to go to Disney tune trivia this afternoon, so we headed down to La piazza early and got a seat.

 

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Jeanne said Emily was thinking about coming, but in the end she didn’t show up.

 

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As it was getting close to start a lady came over and asked if we would like to join her team as it was just her and her husband and he wasn’t good with songs. I said sure, but we couldn’t promise to be good either. So we moved over to their booth and played with them.

She was right…her husband really didn’t know many songs…..but between us 3 girls, we didn’t do too poorly. We didn’t win, but we did have fun and they were a super nice couple.

 

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[jenseib]

We headed out and I had to get this shot of Ooh La La on the wall because this is a saying I use a lot….in reference to It’s a Small World.

 

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We walked by the new Tiffany’s they put on the ship during dry dock. I have to say I never saw anyone buying anything. They did not have anything Disney specific and most people just kind of wandered in and looked at the cases and then headed out. I have to say this was a poor move on Disney’s part.

 

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We did some wandering around then.

 

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[jenseib]

And then out to deck 4……I see land out there.

 

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They had set up the backdrops for pictures for tonight, which would be formal night, and I told Claire I would do her own personal photo shoot.

 

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[jenseib]

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We walked around then a bit and Claire and I played a little bit of the detective agency. We didn’t finish, but we did quite a bit. She was the pro, so I let her lead me around. We had planned to finish our game later, but sadly we never did.

 

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I did make Claire stop and get a picture by the statue too.

 

 

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[jenseib]

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Part of the mission was to go look at some names on Pepe’s door.

 

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We had to end though so we could go get showered and ready for formal night and the show.

 

 

Tonight’s show was Aladdin. I really like this show a lot. In Oct. the actor who was Aladdin was REALLY easy on the eyes…We called him Hot Aladdin. The cast was totally different this time around, but this Aladdin wasn’t too bad.

 

We of course filled our popcorn buckets and settled in to watch the show amongst friends.

 

At the end I did the cell phone picture thing to capture a few.

 

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[jenseib]

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After the show we headed back to the room for a bit….new towel animal on display for us.

 

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We went shopping again….again buying nothing, but did see Minnie in a really cute outfit.

 

 

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[jenseib]

We went to the Captains cocktail hour in the lobby and found Jeanne. We got a drink, mine was better than hers and just walked around a bit. Cass and family were not coming to dinner tonight because they like pool time and Cass doesn’t do well with sun or heat, which just leaves evening hours for her to swim. Since the pools close kind of early, they would skip dinner on some nights and swim instead. Jeanne mentioned asking Patty’s family to join our table since Cass’s wouldn’t be there. I had actually thought the same thing earlier, but then didn’t say anything as I didn’t know if Jeanne would want to have others join us.

 

We then headed down to Enchanted Garden where we found Patty’s family and Jeanne’s kids joined us as well. Patty’s family said yes, they would like to join us.

 

We did some pictures while we waited.

 

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It was time to go in then. We got seated and added one more chair to our table for Patty’s family. We made our orders and soon food was coming out.

 

I can’t remember what everything is tonight….so just pictures. We had the formal night menu tonight.

 

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These were good!

 

The sushi was ok…but I am still iffy on sushi. Not the best I had, but not great either.

 

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This steak was decent for me. Claire’s steak was just ok.

 

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And dessert….with that layer of jelly stuff on top that I scraped off.

 

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[jenseib]

Crème Brulee…..just ok…..this is another thing that I am still iffy on. Sometimes I found it really good, but most times it is just ok.

 

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Claire went with sherbet ice-cream. I think this was one of the only nights she got dessert.

 

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We had a good time at dinner and we had a lot of laughs. Ferdi was good, Lewis was still a little slow, but very nice. I really hadn’t gotten to know Patty’s boys much so far. Zach was the oldest and he was super friendly and talkative. Not shy one bit. I got the feeling he could talk anyone into anything if he wanted to. LOL. I mentioned later to Patty and Fred that he would be a great used car salesman because he was such a smooth talker. Fred said no way….Lawyer! Yes! Even better! He said Zach has been negotiating things since he was able to talk. LOL. Zach was always off hanging with the teens and he made friends early on that he did stuff with.

Caleb was super nice too (age 14, so just 2 years older than Claire, and the same age as Nick). Patty said Caleb is a little shy and he wasn’t much for the kids clubs. He preferred to hang with his parents and observe…just like Claire. It was like the boy version of Claire. He didn’t want to do stuff with others till he got to know them and most cruises she said he just does stuff with her and Fred while they hardly ever saw Zach.

 

Ferdi did little magic tricks for us each night at the end of dinner. Kelsey and Emily were always trying to figure them out or be the first ones to figure out how it was done. I think Ferdi liked that they were so into his tricks.

 

I didn’t mention this last night, but there was a family…a large family…that dressed up in costume every single night a few tables away. I believe they had a son, 2 daughters and some other older family members. Their costumes were pretty elaborate….but I think my WHOLE family would KILL me if I made them wear costumes on any other night than Halloween. Sometimes they had a theme and other nights they would just be randomly dressed up. We always had to take a look each night to see what they wore. It still amazed me that the men and son went along with it.

 

We had lingered awhile and talked and finally we decided to head out. The hypnotist, RickyKalmon, was having his adult show tonight in the Walt Disney Theatre. I wanted to go and Emily said she was going to try to get hypnotized. She said it never works for her, but it’s fun trying….so I planned to meet the girls there later.

 

I looked back to take a picture as we were exiting.

 

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There’s Brook!

 

Henry made a stop to do a modeling session since he looked so handsome.

 

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I forgot to mention that Patty’s family always looked so nice each night. She would have colored coordinated outfits for them to wear and they looks really sharp….and her boys like to dress up, which is really nice.

 

 

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Claire headed back to the room to lounge around. She had a mission too. She learned how to find movies on the TV, so she was watching Guardians of the Galaxy since we have never seen it and many were talking about how they liked it. I was glad she has found something she liked to do and I didn’t feel bad leaving her in the room then.

 

I took a walk for a bit.

 

 

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[jenseib]

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And then headed to the hypnotist. I think Fred and Patty joined as well (though I could be wrong on that). Emily and Kelsey joined as well, but Jeanne was too tired.

 

When Ricky called for volunteers, Emily ran up.

 

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She’s on the very end.

 

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And I took a little video too.

 

 

[jenseib]

Sadly, Emily wasn’t up there long. He knew she wasn’t under and sent her back to her seat.

 

It was a good show. We saw him in Oct. and this show was pretty much the same, but it is different as different people will do different things.

 

One girl was falling all over and flopping around. He kept telling her to sit back up and she would…then slowly flop over again. I am not sure if she was drunk, or just really really under. Usually, if someone is really under, he uses them for special things. He kept her up on stage the whole time, but never used her for anything…..so something had to be going on there.

 

Some people were really hysterical and others not so much. I enjoyed the show though and I always wonder who is really under and who is faking it. One person was a bit too prepared and it made me think she may have been faking.

 

After the show, I went up top for a little bit and saw one lady who had been hypnotized and I said hello. We talked about the show (and she later told me people came up to her the whole cruise recognizing her from the show). She said she was definitely under and she was aware, but yet kind of not. LOL. But she said it was all real for her and she did feel like she had just slept for several hours.

 

I then headed back to the room and Claire was still watching tv. We talked a bit and I told her it was time to turn it off for the night. I agreed that I would let her sleep in tomorrow to catch up on sleep….and hopefully she would be a bit more cheerful now.

[jenseib]

Day 6, June 30, 2017, Day at Sea

 

I got up around 7 or so and put on some clothes and headed up top to see what the day had in store for us. I put the do not disturb sign on the door so Claire could sleep.

 

The sun was up.

 

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Jeanne messaged me and asked if I was going to walk today. Yes I was, but I am moving a bit slow because my feet were so blistered. I kept developing new blisters all the time this trip and my feet were a mess.

 

I went down and met her and she said we were only going to do 2 miles. We talked and walked and I knew we had gone more than 2 miles at one point, but I was enjoying the conversation, so I kept going. At 4 miles, Jeanne said…ok, I lied, but I figured I would get you to walk more if w ejust kept going. LOL! I was totally fine with it and it was nice to work off those desserts.

 

I went back to the room and checked on Claire, who was dead to the world. I saw our stateroom host, and let him know I was letting her sleep in today, so it could be a while before he could get in the room and he was ok with that.

 

I met Jeanne for breakfast…sorry no food pictures…but I got the same thing most days. Either a pancake or Mickey waffle with strawberry sauce and whipped cream, a hash brown, a chocolate covered donut and some days I added a sausage or ham. One of the drink dispensers has the mango guava juice, so I would get that when I could, but a few times it would run out and I would settle for orange juice….and I usually got a milk to drink as well.

 

I cleaned up and changed clothes and just kind of did my own thing, walking around the ship, staring at the sea, and checking on Claire. At one point I came back to the room and found this.

 

seas3by Jenseib, on Flickr

 

 

She had found her fish extender gifts (we did a private one with our friends and she really got some great stuff) and she was hiding in the window seat.

 

Hello Claire!

 

seas12by Jenseib, on Flickr

 

She loved this seat and sat there a lot this cruise.

 

seas4by Jenseib, on Flickr

 

I told her that Kira had been messaging her….I could see them pop up in her phone. It was kind of funny. The messages would say…do you want to do this…and then… ok never mind…..Do you want to do that….ok never mind. LOL. I picked up the phone while Claire was getting ready and let Kira know that Claire had been sleeping and had just got up.

 

We then went out and did a little bit of nothing I think. We got a message from Rob to ask if Claire wanted to swim or play putt putt. Claire announced she would NOT be getting in a pool on the ship…She would only be swimming in port….OK…that’s odd? She said putt putt would be fine.

 

We went and found them at the pool and Claire and Kira headed off to putt putt. I talked to Rob for a bit and then got some ice-cream and just walked around. After a bit I saw the girls playing the detective agency as it was too windy to putt putt. The seas had gotten a little rougher, but not bad in my opinion, and the wind had picked up. I had heard this is normal for the Aruba and Curacao areas, so I figured it wouldn’t get any better till we left those islands.

 

After a bit, Claire came back to the room and we decided to go watch the diaper dash….something we had never done before. I know someone came and watched with us, but I can’t remember if it was Cass or Jeanne.

 

seas5by Jenseib, on Flickr

[jenseib]

It took them a while to get set up and then even at the start time, we were still waiting. We had a nice view of the light fixture from where we were standing.

 

seas6by Jenseib, on Flickr

 

There were only 2 kids signed up to do the race. One was pretty old and the other was probably too young. When it started, the older one got on his hands and knees and at the coaxing of his brother took right off. The other would not move….he just stood there and cried. LOL!

 

seas7by Jenseib, on Flickr

 

We then headed to guest services to put some money and gift cards on my account. We really hadn’t bought much of anything yet, but I wanted to get the money on the account for the excursions.

 

seas8by Jenseib, on Flickr

 

seas9by Jenseib, on Flickr

 

seas10by Jenseib, on Flickr

 

When she printed out my receipt she said I had 38 cents on my account now….what? I had just put like $500ish on my account. She let me know that the excursions had been in the account, so those are now all paid for. OOOOH!!! In the past, my excursions had never hit my account till the day they were conducted….so not sure if this is new or not…or just depending on the sailing.

 

It was time for lunch, and we headed up to Flo’s to find something.

 

seas11by Jenseib, on Flickr

 

 

I think Claire just had fries and maybe chicken tenders. She’s not a big eater anymore and I swear she hardly ate this cruise.

[jenseib]

We then headed back to the room where I wanted to take a little nap. Jeanne asked if we wanted to play a card game in a little bit, so I set my alarm so I wouldn’t fall asleep for too long. Claire watched her movie and I dozed. It was just enough to give me a pick me up.

 

We headed off to O’gills to play cards, but the set up on this one compared to the Magic, really isn’t ideal for a card game and there was a game being shown on the screen and the only table that would work was right in front of the screen. We decided to head to Cabana’s as it was closed now after lunch and we could just find a quiet spot to play.

 

That worked out perfectly and we sat at a round table and Jeanne and family taught Claire and I how to play Wizards….and later Phase 10.

 

seas34by Jenseib, on Flickr

 

This was the first time I think I heard Nick talk. He had been so quiet, but as the game went on, I think he felt comfortable around us. We really had a good time and enjoyed the game and doing a lot of laughing.

 

After a couple of games, we decided now was the time to try Sweet on You ice-cream.

 

seas13by Jenseib, on Flickr

 

Claire got a mango cone.

 

seas14by Jenseib, on Flickr

 

And I got some sort of peanut butter combination.

 

We headed back to play Phase 10. Again we had fun. At one point, Claire had to pick someone to get skipped or pick a card or something. I knew it would be me. She is shy and if she isn’t comfortable, I am the one she picks. She totally surprised me and picked Nick! It was so funny. It did make me happy that she was opening up a bit and enjoying the company. She really was getting into the game and even talking with everyone instead of just listening.

 

We only intended to play for a little bit, but we were having so much fun, we ended up skipping doing some other things we had thought of doing this afternoon. It was just so much fun and none of us wanted to leave.

 

But finally we had to go and get ready to go to the show. Tonight was Ricky Kalmon’s family show. Claire had seen him last cruise too and really enjoyed him, so she didn’t want to miss it.

 

Our door.

 

seas15by Jenseib, on Flickr

 

As we were in the room doing whatever it was we needed to do I heard the ever familiar thump thump thump down the hall. I looked out to find Grandpa…dressed in his pirate costume…racing with the kids. Seriously? I saw Mom walk by and said…”You guys know when you are running up and down the halls that is sounds like our walls are breaking?” Mom just smiled at me.

I was a bit furious with the reaction, but I thought now that I had confronted them with adults present they might get the idea that we were annoyed and tell the kids to stop…..I was wrong.

Off to the show we went.

 

Again, the show was similar to the one last cruise, but a little different and of course the people make it different. A couple of people were really funny. It was pirate night,and this one girl was under and they sent her back to her seat. Then called her over to meet a special star….Johnny Depp. He just had some guy in a pirate outfit stand up and pretend to beJohnny. She was all excited. It was so funny. The pirate guy went with it and was a good sport.

 

seas16by Jenseib, on Flickr

 

One guy would hold his shoe up when the Lion King song came on like it was Simba. They sent him back to his seat later and if the song came on, he would stand up and take his shoe off and do it. It was pretty funny.

 

seas17by Jenseib, on Flickr

 

One guy who’s family sat behind us was pretty funny onstage, and they had him go back to sit and when Ricky said certain words that the show was over, the guy was to get up and scream HI HO!!!! And lead everyone out. The time came, and the guy just sat there….staring. We kept turning around to peek, but we didn’t want to let him know we were watching him. They started playing the HI HO music and he just sat there….staring confused. Ricky said his own name a few times and nothing…so he walked down to the guy….snapped his fingers in his face…and the guy stood up and screamed HI HO! I think that was even funnier than had he done it the first time.

[jenseib]

After the show we headed out to deck 4 to watch the sunset and just chill.

 

seas18by Jenseib, on Flickr

 

seas27by Jenseib, on Flickr

 

I think we got some drinks to bring back to the room. It was really odd as the first day the diet coke tasted pretty ok. The second day I thought they mixed it up with regular coke. It just tasted really off…and it never got better. I concluded they had messed up the carbonation and it was not very good at all. I suffered through it, but it wasn’t that good. The dining rooms were better, but still not great. I never had that issue before, so not sure what was going on. And I wasn’t the only one who noticed it. Tons of people mentioned both on the cruise and after in the facebook group.

 

Kira came over to our room for a bit as we waited for dinner. She is so funny…she just talks and talks and talks. Cass…you better not keep any secrets because I think your daughter would tell them willingly…without any coaxing. Hahahaha.

 

She liked the window seat too.

 

seas19by Jenseib, on Flickr

 

Time for dinner! We headed down and got seated. Enchanted Garden was where we were again tonight with the pirate menu.

 

seas20by Jenseib, on Flickr

 

For the life of me….I can’t remember what this is.

 

seas28by Jenseib, on Flickr

 

This is the crab cake.

 

seas29by Jenseib, on Flickr

[jenseib]

I also got a Caesar salad tonight. Jeanne had been getting them nightly and said most nights they didn’t have enough dressing, so I asked for extra dressing and Ferdi brought me a big thing full, so we were all able to slop it on like we like it!

 

seas30by Jenseib, on Flickr

 

The Jack’s Treasure of the seas, pasta with scallops and shrimp are always my favorite. They were better this time than last Oct. but I still think they are even better on the Magic for some reason.

 

seas31by Jenseib, on Flickr

 

Dessert…..I think this is the Caramel Macadamia nut cheesecake …which was very good…and a Mickey bar.

 

seas32by Jenseib, on Flickr

 

My Mickey bar had started the melting process and when I picked it up it fell right off the stick and into the bowl, so I ate it with a spoon….which Claire thought was really strange….but seriously….I wasn’t going to let it go to waste.

 

We asked Ferdi about getting banana bread for our table. We all like it and preferred it many times to what they brought out nightly. We also talked to Dewayne, our head server. They let us know it would be on the pirate buffet tonight, but we didn’t want to go to that…so he said he would try and make it happen…and they did and it came out nightly after that.

 

Another enjoyable evening. We did tend to linger and chat most nights. I found out later that Kira was not a fan of that…while Claire just loves it. She is so nosey!

 

We headed back to the room tired. We found out towel animal.

 

seas21by Jenseib, on Flickr

 

I think it looks like an Indian, but I think it is supposed to be a pirate.

 

We debated on going to the fireworks. Claire had a movie she needed to finish…..lol….and I was tired, but in the end I decided to go. I just went up to deck 13 forward and watched from there. I knew Patty and family were watching from their balcony, which was on the right side and Jeanne’s family was staying in their room for the night. I hadn’t heard from Brook and I thought Cass was skipping it, but I found out when I read her report they did actually go.

 

I was fine though, and though I couldn’t hear the music, I had a good view.

 

seas22by Jenseib, on Flickr

 

seas23by Jenseib, on Flickr